The School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences is pleased to announce a new undergraduate certificate program in Forest Health Management, which will prepare students for careers in forest health research and management. The certificate program was developed in collaboration with Proactive Forest Health and Resilience (ProForest); a multi-institutional, cross-discipline group based at UF that works to proactively protect forest ecosystems and their services.
The program was created after a 2023 survey of forest management professionals, including researchers and practitioners working at universities and federal agencies, revealed that forest health and resilience was a top priority for long-term research. The survey was conducted by SFFGS faculty members Dr. Jason Vogel, Dr. Tyler Carney and Dr. Taylor Stein; Dr. Aditya Singh at Texas A&M University; and Lillian Hendrick, a PhD candidate at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Students undertaking the Forest Health Management certificate will gain exposure to relevant issues in forest health and resilience, including invasive species outbreaks and the impacts of severe weather events.
The University of Florida is one of the few institutions in the United States that offers credentials in forest health. Along with this new Forest Health Management certificate, SFFGS also offers a graduate certificate in forest health and resilience, which has been available since 2019.
Undergraduate students majoring in Forest Resources and Conservation who are interested in pursuing the Forest Health Management certificate can find more information here. They may also reach out to Dr. Tyler Carney at tcarney96@ufl.edu, or undergraduate advisor Jackie Gilley at jgilley1@ufl.edu.
This certificate requires 15-17 credits.
The required courses (9 credits) are:
- FNR3133C Tree Biology
- FNR4620C Forest Health Management
- FNR4911 Supervised Research/4941 Internship/4905 Independent Study (with approval from Dr. Carney)
Students may also choose from the following electives (for an additional 6 to 8 credits). Students looking to substitute elective courses may reach out to Dr. Carney.
- SWS4231C Soil, Water, and Land Use
- PLP3230 Survey of Plant Pathogens
- ALS4161 Exotic Species and Biosecurity Issues
- ALS4162 Consequences of Biological Invasions
- IPM3022 Fundamentals of Pest Management
- HOS3305 Introduction to Plant Molecular Biology
- SWS4303C Soil Microbial Ecology
- PLP4653C Basic Fungal Biology
- PLS4601C Principles of Weed Science
- BSC307C Climate Change Biology
0
